Last week, the Young Americans came to CDNIS to teach Grade 6 for 3 days. During the Young Americans experience, we sang and danced as a group. I thought the Young Americans was a one time experience, it was fun and enjoyable.

Before the Young Americans experience, I was really nervous to step out of my comfort zone. At the end I did, and I tried my best to be as close to the front of the stage as possible. I used to think that dancing was simple. After the experience, I realized dancing is complicated and takes lots of practice. I also thought that moving to positions were challenging. I think this way because everyone would be scattered around the stage, and we would run into each other. During the show, somebody stood in my spot, but we solve the problem quickly. The Young Americans experience allowed me to have more courage and confidence. Altogether, there were many challenges but they were all worth it.

Overall, I thought the experience was really fun, it also pushed me out of my comfort zone. But I regret not doing the homestay. Many of my friends said it was fun, they got to socialize with the Young Americans more than others. I really enjoyed this experience.

After weeks of practice, last week my group and I finally performed our dance choreography. What we did in class was, choreographing a dance that included what we learned last year and this year, we also practiced it. What my group and I found challenging were practicing the lifts. We thought this was challenging because sometimes we would lose balance, be distracted or we would be too confident. Therefore, we had to practice the lifts many times, until we found a solution that solved our problem. What I thought was fun was improving. I thought this was fun because when I saw my final product, in the end, it really made me feel accomplished. Here is the link to my dance performance and rubric Link

This week we focused on exhibition. We continued on our next steps, I explored more about my topic, wrote my lines of inquiry, we also figured out the purpose of our learning. Another new thing we tried in 6D we started planning our own morning meeting. This way we connected with each other more than usual and it took more responsibility.

While doing my next steps on exhibition, I wrote about how key concepts can relate to saving Black-faced Spoonbills. Causation: In order to start taking action, I need to know what’s causing Black-faced spoonbills to be endangered. Perspective: Before destroying wetlands, we have to ourselves in the Black-faced spoonbill’s shoes. If we were the Black-faced Spoonbills, losing the wetlands is like losing our homes and running away from it. Reflection: We should reflect on what we’ve done to the animals in the world. From reflecting we should consider to stop hurting them. Change: We need to know the consequences. What will happen if they go extinct? Responsibility: It’s our fault that the spoonbills are endangered, and it’s our responsibility to save them. We caused it we fix it. But we are not letting them, we are just taking advantage of them(IVORY). That makes us greedy.

For our morning meeting, our teacher let us plan and do our morning meeting ourselves. The first time we played the game we decided to play “Wah”. Since it was our first time doing this, we kept arguing about what game we should play and do. In the end, we got to play two games. Every time we finished one morning meeting, we reflected on what we did and what we should improve on. On Thursday, we were much better and had more fun than the other days. We decided on a game efficiently and quickly. We played telephone. It ended up really fun and funny. The morning meeting allowed 6D to connect with each other and it also gave us more responsibility.

Overall, this week we focused on using the key concepts in our learning. We also focused on exhibition, and what steps we are going to take next. I wonder if we will be planning our own morning meeting next week too.

This week finished up many things. Like our math unit and report writing. We did our math summative and did our final edit on our report writing. I thought the math assessment was challenging, but in the end, I finished it. Writing the report writing was fun, it was like reflecting on my research. Even better, our reports will be sent to The World Economic Forum.

Something I focused on this week was my report writing. I wrote about the Wall Street Crash of 1929. I thought writing the report was challenging because I prefer writing fiction stories. I learned about three forms of media I can use to make my report more entertaining. During the week we went to some workshops, there we learned about three forms of media. The three forms of media are whiteboard animation, magazine article, and an infographic. I chose to do a magazine article. Since I finished my report writing the week before, I just had to put my writing into a magazine template, then make some edits. After all, I thought this task was challenging and fun at the same time.

For math, I had been assigned to do a special task. It was about using my knowledge of decimals in the real world. For the decimals summative, I thought some questions were challenging. But at the end, I got through them. I am wondering what we will learn next unit on math.

Somethings I am looking forward to next week is SECRET SANTA! On Friday, we decided to do Secret Santa. I am looking forward to finding out who got me.

Overall, this week we wrapped up somethings and started some too. I am excited to find out about new topics and news next week.

Last week, grade 6 took a trip to outward bound. I learned and experienced many things past those 4 days. Even though many activities were a challenge, I participated in all. This week I did many things I wouldn’t have done if I weren’t in Outward Bound. After this year’s experience, I am looking forward to next year’s trip.

My favorite activity was hiking. I enjoyed this activity because it was challenging and fun. I never thought that the hike would be so hard. The road was covered up with rocks and soil, I was afraid that I would fall or hurt myself. The hike was much different than I was expecting. I tripped a few times and got hurt, but that didn’t mean that I was going to give up. I just kept climbing. Eventually, I reached the top of the peak. The seven-hour hike was worth it, the view up there was astonishing! Once I reached the top, the breezy wind brushed past my hair and the fresh air went into my nose. Inhale, exhale. From the top of the mountain, I could see tiny building under me, I could see far and wide. It was like I was looking from a flying bird’s perspective.

After spending some time on the mountain, it was time for us to hike down. From the start, I already knew that it hiking down was going to be challenging. Many people fell and tripped at this time, luckily I didn’t. I held on tight to the rocks and grass, using it as support and balance. Doing and finishing this activity made me proud, I climbed/hiked a mountain I can see from far away. This makes me hope I’ll do this next time.

Because of camp, I got to experience things that I wouldn’t have done if I didn’t go to Outward-Bound. Even though it was challenging, it was a wonderful experience. Therefore, I am looking forward to what new experiences I am going to go through next year.

This week we continued on our trade game, this week we accomplished a lot. During the trade game, I learned many new things while finishing up the goals. For example the poster, I feel like this poster was a big success, I think we might win the challenge.

This is a poster based on report writing tips, it was one of our goals for our trade game. Our goal was to make the most colorful poster. I worked with my work. I provided materials and wrote the tips. While writing the tips I learned that there are many steps when making a report writing. My group and I ended up writing 10 tips/steps. I thought this task was very useful, I can use these tips while writing a piece of report writing, it could be used later on. The tips we wrote on our poster are:

Decide on a non-fiction topic

Write down questions related to the topic

Research about your topic(Facts only)

Analyze your research, find related images

Sort out your information

Create a draft with formal report writing format

Self-edit your draft

Peer edit your draft

Correct edits to create a final draft

Publish final draft

This poster can help me throughout grade 6.

The trade game can relate to three key concepts. Form, causation, and connection. Form can relate because everyone doesn’t have the same rules. For example, 1’s have to sit on the floor. Therefore, everyone has a different way of seeing the game, fun or unfair. I was a Jack, I had a benefit. Therefore I thought the game was really fun to me. Connection can relate to the trade game because it actually shows the real world. For instance, poverty and the rich. People who are in poverty have different rules and privileges than the rich. People who are poor can’t afford buildings, but the rich can. Adding on to connection, causation relates because that’s how the world is. It is our fault the world is like this, we can change it but we are not.

What I thought that helped me a lot during the trade game was merging. Merging is when people join and share their materials to create a company. I found this helpful because we shared unifix cubes and colors. Therefore we have more privileges. Although we have to divide our cubes evenly at the end, we figured out a solution. Altogether we have earned 87 cubes, if we divide it we won’t have enough cubes to beat the other groups. So we have decided to give somebody nearly all the cubes. Either way, our company wins. After this game, I learned many things that can help me in the future.

This relates to the Wall Street Crash of 1929 , because at that time, they were one of the only poorest countries in the world. Therefore they were different from the other countries.

Overall, the trade game allowed me to realize many things. For example, what we are doing wrong in the world, and that there are many steps until you can publish your report writing.

The 11th week of grade 6 had just past. This week I learned a lot of shocking things, but what I thought was most interesting was learning about inequality. I also built a better understanding of trade. I hope I can use what I learned this week outside of school.

This week my class and I went on a field trip to Oxfam. During this field trip, we learned about inequality with people who had farmer registrations. There is a cycle in China used for migrants. I never even knew there was such thing. There are two types of registrations for migrants. Farmer registrations and city registrations. People who have city registrations have a bigger benefit. For instance, kids who have farmer registrations can’t go to school! In order to change your registration, it takes a lot of work. This field trip also gave me an experience of factory workers lives. They have to work for 12 hours a day without stopping, they are not allowed to talk and they down even know what they are making. Overall, this field trip made me want to learn more about this problem.

During this week we started a simulation, in this simulation we have to draw cards. Each card has different rules. For example, a jack and a queen start off with 10 cubes. You can trade your markers, computer time or products and cubes. By the end of the week, our goals are to build the highest tower of cubes, create the most colorful poster that includes tips about report writing, and lastly to have an organized tray and locker. I also learned about fair trade. If someone has no bargaining power, they will be forced to accept whatever prices the buyers offer. That is not fair trade. Fairtrade is when people are paid properly for their work, so it’s not slavery. For example, if people take their whole day cutting trees, and only being paid 7 dollars per week, that’s not fair trade. They are not being paid properly. It’s challenging to access free markets in places like Mali. Therefore many people trade in the local market. This left many farmers in poverty. Luckily, the United States and the Western nations are willing to help solve these problems for the needful. After this fair trade became more common because of this.

After all, because of this week I am now looking forward to learning more about unfairness and trade. I wonder what we will learn next week.

The 10th week of school just ended. This week we learned more about economics, even better we got to research about a past event of our choice. During this week I inquired about interesting topics that I am looking forward to learn more about.

Some things that I thought were really interesting was The Wall Street Crash of 1929. I chose The Wall Street Crash as my past event I’m going to research about. This is sort of a project for the economic world forum.(We worked in partners) While my and my partner was researching about this topic I builded a better understanding of Stocks and economics. Here is my work:

Questions we had to answer are, What happened during this event? How is it related to economics? What caused this event? What lessons can you learn? After answering all these questions we learned that the Wall Street Crash of 1929 caused the Great depression. The event happened because there was a stock crash. A stock is when you sell a very small percentage of your company. The more money the company makes the more expensive the stock is. Normally if you want your share, it would cost a lot of money. A stock crash is when supply and demand go out of hand. It happens when a bunch of people sell their stocks(mostly in very low prices), instead of buying them. In this event it occurred because many people and companies sold their stocks at very low prices. To be accurate, 16 million shares were sold in very low prices. I am looking forward into finishing this project.

Overall, I learned many incredible things about the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Some questions I still have are, did the citizens of New York protest? How long did it last? I hope by next week I’ll be moving to the next step of the project/challenge.

9 weeks into school already! This week we tuned into our new unit about economic historians. I already learned a lot about it. During this week I learned about new things and it lead me to some questions.

This unit is all about being and learning about economic historians. When I was doing my home learning, I learned about Adam Smith. Adam Smith is sort of know as the father of economics now. He wrote the book called, The Wealth of Nations. He believed that wealth came from labour. He had three strategies to help economies grow. The first strategy is to let people follow their own interest and goals. The second one is the division of labour, you can create more goods by separating work into simpler roles. The last one is free trade, when the governments don’t actively interact of international trade, everyone benefits. Some questions I have are, where was he born, and what inspired him to be what he is known as now?

We were also introduced to a challenge. From the text clues I think this challenge is about saving poverty. I still wonder why students are doing this challenge instead of teachers, adults and the World Economic Forum? While analysing the challenge, I learned new words. Some words I found interesting are, World economic forum and Global Factors. Overall, I already learned so much about economics.

This week was really interesting. After this week I look forward to learning more about economic historians and the challenge. This also makes me wonder what I will learn next week.